Seeking Social Justice in a Capital Metaphor: Cultural Capital and Other Insufficient Frameworks

• In Event: 29.090 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.090-16 - Critical Educators Moving Forward With Social Justice Education

Abstract

This is a hermeneutic reading of cultural capital, social capital, and their derivatives. Financial capital, the basis of these frameworks, is premised on unequal exchange. Money becomes capital when it is not spent, but is instead invested, manipulated, and exploited. Metaphorical capitals have been crtiticized as falsely quantitative and inequitable. Within social justice research, some assume that metaphorical capital nullifies economic capital. Yet marginalized students (by definition) have been excluded by dominant culture. Metaphorical capital mimics neoliberal vocabulary, arguably endorsing capitalism’s hegemony. Within communities of color, these concepts should not be called capital at all; by implementing capital theories, researchers’ goals contradict their own theoretical frameworks. This paper concludes by proposing social justice frameworks that do not rely on capital.

Author

• Kip Austin Hinton, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley